Beam Us Up vs Xenu's Link Sleuth (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Beam Us Up grades higher than Xenu's Link Sleuth: 3.0 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Beam Us Up grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Xenu's Link Sleuth
Free Windows program that checks a website for broken links
Free
Which one is for you
Pick Beam Us Up if
- Fits if you want a site crawler without a subscription
- Works for developers who want to run crawls from the command line or a server
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you need support you can count on, as it's one developer's project answered through site comments
- Too light for very big audits, since crawls use up to half your computer's memory and Excel exports stop at 65,536 rows
- Skip it if you want crawls run in the cloud, as it only runs on your own computer
- Watch out: its own site says paid crawlers such as Screaming Frog and Netpeak do more
Pick Xenu's Link Sleuth if
- Fits if you're on Windows and want a broken link list without signing up for anything
- Works for checking HTML files on your own disk or an intranet before they go live
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you use a Mac or Linux, as it's Windows only and the author won't port it
- Watch out: the current release, 1.3.8, dates from September 2010, with only a beta build offered beside it
- Not for you if your site builds its links with JavaScript, as those pages show no outgoing links
- Too light for an SEO audit, as there are no on-page, speed or structured data checks
- Tight if pages sit behind a login form, which needs a separate test build, or you need robots.txt respected, which isn't planned
How we grade them
| 3.0GPABeam Us UpVery good | 2.6GPAXenu's Link SleuthGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree, with no paid plans and no crawl limits stated. You download it and run it on your own computer, which counts as free and substantial on our ladder. | AFree, with no paid edition. The author asks people who find it useful to donate to causes he names instead of paying him. A program anyone can download and run counts as free here. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright. The only extra is a free Google API key of your own if you want PageSpeed scores. | AThe whole program is free to download and use, with no account and no paid edition. The 64-bit beta build for very large sites is free as well. |
| Features | CFinds broken links, redirects, duplicates, missing tags and canonical problems, with bulk PageSpeed, JavaScript rendering, AI bot checks, crawl comparison, a command line and MCP. Its own site says paid crawlers such as Screaming Frog are more capable, and Excel exports stop at 65,536 rows. | DIt checks links only: pages, images, frames, style sheets and scripts, with redirects, a report and a site map. No on-page SEO, speed or structured data checks, pages built with JavaScript show no outgoing links, and robots.txt support isn't planned. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record. You install it, type a site address and crawl, with nothing else to set up unless you want PageSpeed scores. | BNo rating on record. It's a program you install, give a start address and run, with nothing to connect. Crawl speed is set from 1 to 100 threads, 30 by default. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWindows, Mac and Linux, plus a command-line crawler and MCP links to Claude, Cursor, VS Code and Gemini CLI. Computers only, though: no web or phone version. | DWindows only. The author says he won't make Mac or Linux versions, though users report it running under Wine. No integrations and no API. |
| Best for | free desktop crawls with no limits | free broken link checks on Windows |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Beam Us Up and Xenu's Link Sleuth. How we grade
Price against what you get
Beam Us Up has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Xenu's Link Sleuth has no paid plan and scores 1.7.
Beam Us Up scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other technical SEO tools on the chart, none scores higher than Beam Us Up for less, and none scores higher than Xenu's Link Sleuth for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Beam Us Up also covers page speed.
- Xenu's Link Sleuth also covers reports.
In commonFree planWindowsSite audit
At a glance
| Beam Us Up | Xenu's Link Sleuth | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | The whole crawler is free with no stated crawl limits; PageSpeed scores need your own free Google API key. | The whole program is free to download and use; the author asks those who find it useful to donate to causes he names rather than pay him. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | BeamUsUp | Tilman Hausherr |
| Price read from | beamusup.com | home.snafu.de |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Beam Us Up
- It is desktop software only: crawls run on your own computer and can use up to half of its memory.
- The Excel export stops at 65,536 rows per sheet.
- It is a personal project of its developer, and support is offered through comments on the site.
- Its own site says paid crawlers such as Screaming Frog and Netpeak are more capable.
Xenu's Link Sleuth
- It runs only on Windows; the author will not make Mac or Linux versions, though users report it working under Wine.
- The last full release, 1.3.8, is from September 2010, and robots.txt support is not on the author's plans.
- Pages built only with JavaScript show no outgoing links, and logging in through a web form needs a separate test build.
- It checks links only: there are no on-page SEO, speed or structured data checks.
Key features
Beam Us Up
- Technical crawl checks
- Finds broken links, server and client errors, redirects, duplicate content, page titles, meta descriptions, H1 to H3 headings, canonicals and blocked URLs.
- PageSpeed scores in bulk
- Pulls Google PageSpeed results, including Core Web Vitals from real visitors, for crawled pages using a free Google API key.
- JavaScript rendering
- Version 2.0 can render pages using a Chrome or Edge browser already installed on the computer, set to never, auto or always.
- AI bot access checks
- An AI Access tab shows which of 27 search and AI bots the site's robots.txt allows, checks llms.txt, and can export an llms.txt draft.
- Crawl comparison
- Compares two crawls to show fixed, new and remaining issues and changed pages, with results exported as CSV files.
- Command line and MCP
- Installs a command-line crawler for scripts and servers, and can connect to AI apps such as Claude, Cursor and VS Code over MCP.
Xenu's Link Sleuth
- Broken link checking
- Checks ordinary links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, image maps, style sheets, scripts and Java applets, and can re-check the broken ones.
- Redirect detection
- Reports URLs that redirect, alongside the broken ones, in a list that can be sorted by different columns while the crawl runs.
- Reports and site map
- Produces a report at any point in a crawl, which can also be sent by email, plus a site map of the pages it found.
- Local and intranet checks
- Checks HTML files on your own disk or an intranet before they are uploaded, without needing a local web server.
- Orphan file search
- Looks for files on the server that no page links to; the passwords entered for this are not kept after the program closes.
- Configurable crawl speed
- Fetches pages in parallel with 30 threads by default, adjustable from 1 to 100; the author says crawls have passed a million URLs.
Plans
Beam Us Up
Free$0
The full desktop crawler for Windows, macOS and Linux, with no limits stated on the site.
Xenu's Link Sleuth
Free$0
The full link checker for Windows, with no paid edition. A 64-bit beta build is offered for very large sites.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Beam Us Up or Xenu's Link Sleuth?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Beam Us Up and Xenu's Link Sleuth are free to use.
Which has a free plan, Beam Us Up or Xenu's Link Sleuth?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Beam Us Up and Xenu's Link Sleuth have a free plan.
Which platforms do Beam Us Up and Xenu's Link Sleuth run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Beam Us Up lists macOS and Linux apps. Both list a Windows app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.